Are you tired of feeling tired and unwell all the time? I’m glad you’re reading this! In this post, I’ll introduce you to the 5 key steps to optimal health and how you can improve your well-being naturally.
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I started right at that point a few years ago before working my way to optimal health. I reached a point where I used to feel tired all the time, my gut wasn’t healthy, I suffered from recurrent headaches and back pain, and I couldn’t focus at work. I struggled to keep my weight stable and my skin was breaking out all the time. I was constantly stressed out and unhappy and I felt my life was a big failure and I couldn’t achieve anything I wanted to.
I tried multiple “miraculous” diets that did not work, I spent way too much money on supplements and tried new workout programs I simply couldn’t stick with.
I then took a step back and realized nature gives us all the tools to be healthy. I took a few steps and make big changes in my diet and lifestyle, and even in my home. Since then, all my symptoms went away and I gained energy I didn’t even know I could have. I worked toward achieving my dreams and finally lived the life I wanted.
I want to help you do the same, that’s why I have put together some great resources just for YOU. Don’t forget to grab my FREE 40-page Introduction to Optimal Health ebook with ALL my tips to improve your well-being naturally.
Optimal health
What is optimal health? It’s about becoming the best version of yourself, considering your personal condition and genetics. For example, if you suffer from any chronic conditions, achieving optimal health will help keep symptoms under control and feel overall better.
But how does it feel and look like to be in optimal health? Assuming you don’t have any major medical conditions, by achieving your optimal health you’ll experience:
- increased energy and strength
- improved cognition
- stable, healthy weight
- healthy skin
- regular, healthy gut
- reduced pain and inflammation
- improved mood
You’ll feel better and happier!
Remember, this is the right moment to change your life for the best.
So, let me introduce you to the 5 steps to optimal health and how you can improve your well-being naturally.
1. Change your diet
We are what we eat and that’s why eating healthy is the very first step toward optimal health.
Eliminate processed, industrial foods
Highly processed, industrial foods often contain unbalanced macronutrients, they’re high in sugars, carbohydrates, unhealthy fats (vegetable oils and hydrogenated fats), and they contain a bunch of harmful chemicals (artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours, preservatives).
What they most of the time don’t contain is essential macro- (proteins and healthy fats) and micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) our bodies need.
How to avoid processed foods?
Start cooking from scratch! It doesn’t have to be complicated, and you can find plenty of easy
recipes to start with (go to my healthy food from scratch section for some ideas!).
Chose simple, real ingredients to prepare your meals and snacks, such as meats and poultry, fish and seafood, eggs, vegetables and fruit, healthy fats (butter, animal fats, olive and coconut oil), and properly prepared grains, nuts and dairy (only if tolerated).
Eat plenty of proteins at each meal, and add fats and limited carbs (mainly from vegetables and fruit) according to hunger.
Eat all the nutrients your body needs
Our bodies need a combination of balanced macro- and micro-nutrients to work properly.
All these nutrients are found in food, so you can (and should) skip your multivitamin and eat your nutrients!
As a general rule, animal products fuel our bodies with the proteins, fats and some important vitamins and minerals (Vit A, Vit D, iron).
Vegetables and fruit (and nuts) complement with essential vitamins and minerals that might lack in animal foods (Vit C, Vit E), as well as other healthy fats (but limit your choices to olive and coconut oil).
Eat a variety of animal and vegetable products. When it comes to vegetables eat a wide variety, but not a large quantity!
Include “superfoods” in your diet, such as organ meats (liver, hearth, marrow), fatty fish and/or cod liver oil, eggs (including fish eggs), grass-fed butter, collagen and gelatin, bone broth, and fermented foods (such as yogurt).
Chose the best quality ingredients you have available
Choose the best quality you can afford and you have available. Quality matters! Favor:
- Grass-fed, pastured raised meat raised without hormones and antibiotics, including organ meats
- Free-range pastured eggs
- Grass-fed butter and dairy products (raw is better)
- Organic, raw, and good-quality olive and coconut oil
- Organic vegetables and fruit (at least the ones more heavily sprayed with pesticides such as berries, apples, peaches, grapes, and leafy greens)
- Good-quality, real sea salt
- Chlorine and fluoride-free water (from well or filtered)
Finally, try to eat local, in-season products as much as you can!
Eat on the right schedule
What you eat certainly matters the most, but when you eat is also important!
Most people snack multiple times a day in between meals, or even in replacement for their meals. Constant snacking not always tends to make us gain weight, but puts our body in a constant state of stress and inflammation. Digestion takes energy, so snacking often is also responsible for a lack of energy (despite many people thinking they need to keep eating to keep their energy up!).
How to stop snacking constantly?
Eat fulfilling meals! Every day, eat (2 or 3) fulfilling meals that satiate you, and are tasty and fulfilling. Eat plenty of proteins and fats at each meal to help keep you full longer.
It’s also important to eat when you’re truly hungry. Everyone is different, so find the eating schedule that works best for you according to when you’re hungry.
Try to have at least 12 (but up to 16) hours when you don’t eat. This sort of natural intermittent fasting will allow your stomach and your body to rest and recover from the task of digesting food, decreasing inflammation and fatigue.
2. Review your lifestyle and habits
Changing your diet is important, but improving your lifestyle and adopting healthier habits is just as crucial to improving your well-being.
Ditch the sedentary life
Our bodies are meant to move! You don’t need to attend the gym or sign up for a fancy workout program. All you need to do is literally move your body!
Find activities that allow you to move and that you enjoy and include exercise as part of your daily tasks. Find 10 (fun) activities to exercise more without working out here.
Get proper sleep
When we sleep, our bodies regenerate and restore energy, our brains store information, and a series of essential molecules and hormones are produced. That’s why we can’t survive with no sleep!
For optimal health, it’s essential to get proper sleep, which includes sleeping enough hours (at least 7 hours every night for adults), getting quality sleep (falling asleep fast and staying asleep), and sleeping at the right time (going to sleep early).
How do you know if you sleep enough? You should feel rested and energized in the morning!
Get outdoors more
Spending time outdoors has SO many benefits for your physical and mental health (read all about it here).
Go out every day, as much as you can, especially in the morning! You’ll soon be able to notice how much better and happier you feel.
Tune in with nature
Spend a lot of time in nature, and follow nature’s rhythms!
Most people nowadays live completely unturned from the rhythms of the natural world (circadian and seasonal). People live being constantly over-stressed and under-slept. This modern lifestyle can be linked
to many health issues, including poor mental health, lack of energy, and chronic illness.
Our bodies are designed to thrive on balance and predictability and to follow the cues of nature (sunrise, sunset, changing of the seasons). When we honour our body’s natural schedule, we are on our way to achieving and maintaining optimal health.
Reduce screen time and technology
Technology can make our life easier, but too much can harm our physical and mental health.
For example, too much screen time can cause vision problems, impact our sleep, promote a sedentary lifestyle, increase weight gain, and even lead to anxiety, stress, and depression!
Make an effort to reduce how much technology you use and your daily screen time.
3. Have a more positive mindset
You can eat the best diet and follow the healthiest lifestyle, but if you’re constantly stressed out and your glass is always half-empty, you’ll never be able to achieve optimal health. Having a more positive mindset helps overcome every situation life throws at you and manage your stress.
But that’s not all! Extend periods of negativity have detrimental effects on our physical and mental health and often result in a series of symptoms such as: fatigue, upset stomach, sleep problems, anxiety, depression, inflammation, and weight gain or loss. Your mindset can very likely be one of the main causes you feel constantly tired and achy!
So how can you break the habit of negativity? Well, by making optimism your new habit! Easier said than done? Researchers actually suggest that optimism and happiness are more of a choice than a product of external circumstances. This means you CAN be more optimistic and happy if you WANT to.
Practice mindfulness and gratitude, and reduce stress
Mindfulness means being fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. It means slowing down, living in the present, and stopping feeling overwhelmed.
By becoming aware that LIFE SIMPLY HAPPENS, we can stop blaming ourselves for negative situations, and realize that when difficult things cross our paths we don’t need to interpret them as a predictor of more negative things happening in the future. Being mindful means that we acknowledge the presence of adversity, recognize it and embrace it.
Mindfulness goes together with gratitude. It’s about leaving in the present moment and appreciating life as it is right now. It’s about stopping thinking about the past and overly worrying about the future.
To be more mindful and reduce your stress, stop every time you feel overwhelmed by something and distinguish the things you can control from those you cannot. Do what you can to control the things you can, and accept the others.
4. Make your environment healthier
Did you know that your health might be negatively impacted by environmental factors that you cannot even see? Living in a healthy environment is crucial to achieving optimal health.
Reduce exposure to toxins
As you may have heard already, most of the products we use every day contain a myriad of chemicals and toxins that can harm our health.
Exposure to these toxins can increase symptoms from headaches to fatigue and respiratory illness. More serious risks include metabolic diseases, chronic illness, cancer, fertility issues and birth defects.
For a healthy lifestyle, and even more importantly if you are trying to conceive, pregnant, or have children in the house, you should avoid or minimize exposure to these chemicals as much as possible!
From furnishing, cleaning products and kitchen utensils to beauty and self-care products, environmental pollutants, water, and even pets, the sources of toxins are numerous.
Read more about how to reduce your exposure to toxins here.
Be aware of EMFs
Electro Magnetic Fields (EMFs) are invisible energy waves or radiations that are produced by electric and magnetic fields.
We are constantly exposed to EMFs emitted by power lines, electrical wiring, cellphones, WI-FI routers, Bluetooth devices, microwaves, computers, smart meters and all other electrical appliances.
Studies suggest that exposure to EMFs is linked to increased risk of cancer. In people with sensitivity, EMF exposure can also trigger symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and even skin rashes.
While completely avoiding exposure to EMFs is pretty much impossible nowadays, you can be more mindful about EMF exposure and try to minimize it. For example, try not to have your phone turned on close or near you all the time, turn off your WI-Fi and unplug appliances when not in use and at night, keep technology out of your bedroom, and avoid the use of microwaves and induction stoves.
You can also invest in an EMF meter to test your house for EMFs.
5. Connect with your own body
Once you have improved your diet, lifestyle, and attitude, and made changes to make your living environment healthier, it’s time to learn one of the most valuable skills for your optimal health.
The final step you need to make towards your optimal health is probably the most difficult. It’s about gaining a deep awareness and understanding of what is best for your body and your life.
Listen to your body
Listening to your body means taking the time to assess how your body responds to things like the food you eat, your habits, your daily experiences and activities.
When living a busy and frenetic life, It’s easy to just go on and never pay attention to how we’re actually feeling.
But remember, our body knows what it needs and is designed to send us signals to let us know too.
Listening to these signals is a critical step toward achieving and maintaining optimal health!
Keep track
Keeping track of your feelings will help you listen and connect with your own body and identify what changes you can make to feel your best.
At least at the beginning of your journey towards optimal health, try keeping a journal where you keep track of your daily food intake, activities, environment, and even interactions with people and comments on relationships.
Every day also write down how you feel both physically and mentally. Keep track of any symptoms, your level of energy, your mood, and your ability to focus and overcome challenges.
After a while, you’ll be able to identify what makes you feel at your best, and what might be the culprit of physical and mental struggles.
Be honest with yourself
Okay, so by listening to your body and keeping track of how you respond to different things you’ll be able to identify what makes you feel bad and what good.
Once you know something goes against your well-being (physical or mental), you should try to eliminate it. This is the hardest part! It’s easier to just ignore certain things and avoid making changes. In doing so, we really are lying to ourselves and compromising our optimal health.
So be honest with yourself: if something doesn’t make you feel well, change it! Remember, this is not a punishment towards you or anyone else, it’s a deep act of self-love.
I really hope this helps you achieve your optimal health and improve your well-being naturally!
So what are you waiting for? Start right now to change your (and your family’s) life for good! Achieve your optimal health by following these 5 steps to improve your well-being in a natural way.
I would be delighted to hear from you about your story and progress toward optimal health 😉 Leave a comment down below or reach out to me!
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Natural multi-use cleaner: Dr Bronner’s castile soap
Toxin-free cookware: Lodge cast iron skillet, Instant Pot 7-in-1
Fluoride-free toothpaste: Dr Bronner’s peppermint toothpaste
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Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are for informational and educational purposes only, and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
I really appreciate all the good health information you have compiled, you have made a lot of great points. Lately , I have noticed more energy because of eating on more of a schedule, so I completely agree.
Thank you very much, Courtney! And absolutely, just eating on a more regular, natural schedule can help a ton 😉